Friday, December 31, 2010

A couple days before we left to go out of town for Christmas Kevin decided that one more present needed to be bought for the little man. Kevin had just recently seen everything that had been bought already for Christmas and had made it quite clear that Dane was getting a lot, and didn't need anything else. But...all that went out the window when Kevin found out that there was a bucket of army men in the toy department at Target, and just had to get it for the little man. Leave it to Toy Story to capture the desires of a man's heart! HAHA Dane does love it, but I'm starting to wonder did Kevin really think this was a perfect gift for the little man, or was this just an excuse for him to get a toy that HE would love to play with also. Hmm........

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Today is Grandpa's 60th birthday!! We celebrated on Sunday, the day after Christmas with him since they wouldn't be here today. Had presents, a great dinner at Pappadeaux's and then came home for some yummy cake!!!

Dane even sang Happy Birthday to him... which was a surprise to us. We had no idea that he knew the words to that song.

Didn't think I would ever get to Christmas...6 posts later and here we are. Whew!

So, Christmas morning I woke up at the crack of dawn. Don't know why, other than I was paranoid that Dane was going to wake up and go into the tv room climb up on the couch to turn the light on like he does occasionally and then see all the presents and we would miss the whole thing. I know call me weird. So, we put our formal dining chairs in front of the door, and then I STILL ended up waking up extremely early.

Dane didn't wake up til 8:30!! We actually had to go in his room and wake him up, because we were ready to start Christmas morning! So, Kevin and I got ready in the tv room with the camera and video camera, and Grandma and Grandpa brought him in. He immediately ran to the presents, and was so excited! Guess Santa didn't mind that no cookies were left. He gave us the reaction we were wanting when he saw his Buzz Light Year and Batman trike. He was VERY excited!!! Then he noticed all the presents behind it, and said "look at all those presents for me". So, we started letting him tear into the presents. Grandpa and Kevin were the designated "put together and take out of box" guys. I don't think he even noticed the HUGE car mat that Santa brought. He was overwhelmed with everything else. But, once we showed him how his cars could ride on the mat he loved it!! Actually don't think there was a present he didn't like. He got so many great toys, and was really excited all day. It's such fun having Dane at this age at Christmas time. I think he gets it better now, and his reactions are just priceless!

*** these pictures aren't great, and I'm mad at myself for it. I took these pictures with a flash and shouldn't have...I knew better, but was scared that I would miss something if trying to be fancy with my camera :( ***

I love this!! Can't believe I caught him making this face, but so glad that I did!

Santa came through with Buzz!! I was afraid that maybe I didn't get a big enough one, because there are some really BIG ones (but also really big in price), but he LOVES it!! Actually Loves it is a total understatement!

Batman is on the loose

this laser arm band that Buzz Light Year wears was in his stocking... Santa should have thought twice about this... very annoying sound when pushed over and over.... Dane literally pushed it all day :)

can't go wrong with a bag full of Toy Story toys

Race Track!! Santa didn't see that this required 2 different types of batteries on this one and had to make a trip to Walgreen's later that day to get some C batteries... worth it bc this is Definite favorite!

Grandpa playing "Mr Fix it"

Robot that shoots out race cars... right up the little man's alley

Kevin did his fair share of putting toys together also!

Dane's new best friend... BUZZ LIGHT YEAR, I come in Peace

Dane's 1st remote control car...took a little while to figure it out, but now has become really good at driving it around the house.

We ended up going to see a movie on Christmas day. Kevin and I went and saw the movie "The Little Fockers", and Grandma and Grandpa took Dane to see Yoga Bear. Fun Day!

We came home afterwards and spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing with all of Dane's new toys!! We had a wonderful Christmas, and can't believe it's already over!!

Jackie wanted a family picture of all of us in our Aggie shirts, so we started off the day with a photo shoot at the park I have taken several family pictures at. Wasn't sure how it would turn out since I don't really use my tripod all that often, and getting Dane to sit still long enough while using a timer seems like a hard task. But, I have to say that the pictures turned out pretty good, and little man did awesome! He thought it was pretty funny listening to the timer on the camera, and then would get excited when it would actually snap the picture. He would say "let's do it again". We also bribed him with getting to open a present if he was good when we got home. Whatever works...is my philosophy. I only used the timer and tripod when I was in the picture, but don't think you can tell that I had to run and get in my spot before it snapped! I was impressed that all 10 eyes were looking at the camera!

These next few pics are just some random ones from our house... Notice what he is sitting on. Grandpa is a Shiner Bock drinker, and he can't find that in New York, so anytime that he is in town he has to buy cases of it to bring back with him. Pretty interesting all that they have to get while they are in Texas... Grandma drinks a particular tea that is impossible to find in New York as well.

When we got home we let Dane open up a present from his Great Grandmother, Kevin's grandmother who lives in New Orleans. He pulled it out and everyone was like it's a..... it's a......

pillow pet! lol Not sure if anyone but me even knew what it was. I have seen these on tv and in Target. They are just that...a pet that turns into a pillow. Dane got a bumble bee one. Very Interesting! haha Perfect present to open right before his nap!! Dane was excited and was actually content with having to take a nap since we let him bring it with him to bed. Very sweet of her to send him a gift back with Kevin's parents, because she had already sent him a Christmas gift earlier in the month.

We prepared a big Christmas Eve dinner that afternoon. We had enough food for a small army, and it was delicious!! I told Kevin yesterday that if I had to eat turkey or dirty rice again anytime soon I would scream. It was very yummy the first 5 times we ate it, but after that I grew a little tired of it! haha

Then it was time to open up some presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Of course Dane was very excited! He immediately started pulling out presents one by one from under the tree. Lots of fun things for the little man. Grandpa got Dane a LARGE tube of cars. 70 to be exact!!!!! I think we need a new house just to store all the cars! HA Thanks Grandpa! The next time that Dane goes to New York I will make sure to pack all 70 cars for you and him to play with! hehe

Kevin's dad got him this apron from October Fest in New York, and this gigantic German beer and mug...HILARIOUS!! This picture doesn't do a great job of showing exactly how big it was. It's HUGE for real!!

We ended the evening with going to our Church for The Christmas Eve Service. Even though it was storming and we got pretty soaked running into the church we had a great time. The service was wonderful, great music and sermon. I love on Christmas Eve when they light up the entire sanctuary by candle light and sing Silent Night. It's my all time favorite part of the night.

Kevin's Aunt Barby from New Orleans sent Dane that character and a book with that character in it. Cute! So Dane wanted him/her in the picture as well. Dane couldn't ever remember the name of the character (which I can't either now) so he would just call it "my barby". lol So Funny!

We got back from church, and it was pretty late so Dane immediately got put to bed. We set up all the Christmas morning goodies and presents and went to bed ourselves. I woke up about 5:30 in the morning and remembered we forgot to put out cookies and milk for Santa!! WHOOPS! I hope Santa forgave us and still left some fun stuff for the little man!! Stay tuned for Christmas morning!